


Night Watch

by Maggiemaye



Series: Under the Mountain [6]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Coitus Interruptus, F/M, Family Fluff, dwelflings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 23:11:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3914158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maggiemaye/pseuds/Maggiemaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most who consider approaching Erebor with malice in their hearts know that it is suicide to do so. They have all heard the stories of a lone she-elf among the guard, one who does not hesitate to land an arrow or six between the eyes of any who might threaten her home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Watch

Even so many years after the Battle of the Five Armies, the warriors of Erebor still guard the mountain at every hour, including the dark of night. Much of their time on patrol is blessedly uneventful, however. It is a very rare day when they run across raiders, would-be assassins, or, Valar forbid, a rogue Orc. Most who consider approaching Erebor with malice in their hearts know that it is suicide to do so. They have all heard the stories of a lone she-elf among the guard, one who does not hesitate to land an arrow or six between the eyes of any who might threaten her home.

Tauriel knows of the whisperings, and has come to enjoy the notoriety she has gained from her unlikely position in Erebor's guard. She is glad to be counted among their ranks, even though she will never again be a captain. The dwarrow allowed her to take up arms alongside them when she first came to the mountain, on the strength of her connection with the line of Durin. As the decades have passed their trust in her has grown and grown; by now she is viewed as an eccentric family member, one of their own. But they would still never permit an elf to supervise dwarves, no matter how many centuries of training Tauriel may have. It does rankle at her pride at times, but at least she can still make use of her formidable skill.

Yes, Tauriel is grateful for her position. But the nights that she must patrol the mountain rather than sleep take more of a toll on her than she likes to readily admit. 

She drags herself into her bedchamber in the wee hours of the morning after one such patrol, only to find her husband not there. Kili had been given a night watch as well, on the other side of the vast mountain. Tauriel had hoped his shift might end before hers; she has grown to dislike coming back to an empty bed. Still, the blankets feel divine after she has bathed and changed out of her uniform, and Tauriel burrows up to her nose in the luxurious warmth.

She is nearly asleep when Kili slips into the room, crawls into bed and pulls her close. His toes brush against her knees when they lie this way, foreheads touching. He has shed his shirt, Tauriel notes with a grin, and she can smell the outdoors on him.

"Were you planning to bathe before coming to bed?" She purrs the words into his neck, keeping her eyes closed.

"No time for that," Kili replies in a low murmur. "Not when there is a beautiful she-elf waiting for me."

Tauriel shivers as she feels his fingers questing beneath her nightgown, finding the bend of her knee, tracing lazily up the back of her thigh. He draws their mouths to meet, the warm, heady slide of lips and tongues relaxing and energizing Tauriel all at once. Sleep can wait, she decides, gliding a hand up her husband's unclothed back--

"Amad? Adad?"

Kili snatches his hand out of her gown as if it is on fire; she can tell from his wordless grumbling that he is holding back language unfit for present company. They spring to either side of the bed and scramble upright as Therin pads into the room, rubbing his eyes. His ginger hair is a bright flame in the dim light.

"What is it, my love?" Tauriel asks gently, having recovered faster than her husband. Their little son looks up at them with slightly widened eyes. Perhaps only his parents would notice this and see he is preturbed; to anyone else, Therin's face would be the picture of serene calm. It is passing strange to see such a face on a body that is all dwarfling, stocky and wide. Tauriel finds it a wonder to see how each of her children manifests their dual heritage. She knows Kili does as well, though at this particular moment he is looking more groggy than wonderstruck.

"I dreamed that Nethelion and Eronel locked me in the forges and laughed at me and wouldn't let me out. It was dark, and I could hear noises." Therin clambers onto the bed with Tauriel's help, huddling between the two of them. "And Adad came and tried to get me out, but he had puppy paws. So he couldn't open the lock."

Therin is completely solemn. Kili can only blink down at his son, at a loss for words. The hour is far too late (or perhaps too early) to contemplate the inner workings of Therin's sleep-clouded mind.

"Right. I'll be in the bath." Kili hops out of bed without further ado, making sure to ruffle Therin's hair as he goes. "It was just a dream, son. Your brothers may tease, but they wouldn't harm you."

Therin does not look reassured.

"It was scary, Nana," the little boy whispers as soon as his father has gone. Tauriel smiles at the use of Sindarin, an elfling term Therin liked to think he'd outgrown.

"I know, my love." Tauriel pats the pillow next to her as an invitation, which Therin takes eagerly. 

"I went to Rhuna's room first. But she told me to leave her alone." He snuggles beneath the blankets and curls into Tauriel's side, claiming his father's pillow as his own.

"Yes, that can happen when you wake a dwarrowdam princess before she is quite ready." This Tauriel knows from experience. Her tone is light, but Therin still frowns.

"You are safe here with us, Therin," she says softly, smoothing his downy hair. "Sleep well now."

"You have your daggers?" he asks on a yawn.

Tauriel laughs out loud at this. "Of course. And my bow and arrows. I will guard you well, my love."

Therin nods, satisfied, and before long his eyelids slip closed.

It is several more minutes before Kili returns to their bedroom, fully clothed and with damp hair. He looks at his pillow only to find a red-headed dwarfling curled up there, dead to the world.

"You coddle him," he says to Tauriel, fixing her with an exasperated look. But she does not miss the fact that he lowers his voice so not to disturb Therin's sleep.

"How was your bath?" she says softly, smirking.

"Cold." He gives their son a pointed look before flopping spread-eagled onto the bed, head in Tauriel's lap. "Tomorrow night we lock the door. No more...interruptions."

She chuckles and begins to run slow fingers through Kili's hair. He gives a long, happy sigh as he situates himself on his stomach. 

"You will miss it someday. Just as you did when Rhuna stopped coming to us with her little-girl nightmares." She continues her stroking, letting her nails trace lightly along his scalp. "You are as soft with them as I, husband."

Kili mutters, the precise words muffled in the blankets. Since his head is turned away from her, Tauriel indulges herself in a moment of silent laughter.

"Will you take him back to bed, or shall I?"

"I'll do it," Kili yawns. A minute or so later, he is snoring against her knees.

Tauriel rolls her eyes, though she supposes it is her own fault. After decades of marriage, she is fully aware that he sinks like a stone whenever she attends to his hair. And it has, after all, been an extremely long day.

Feeling mischievous, she tickles the back of his neck. Sometimes this jolts him awake, but tonight his only response is to turn his head to face her, snuffling into her thighs a bit before settling again, heavy across her lap. Tauriel is sitting half-upright against the wall; at this angle, she does not have the leverage necessary to shift his dead weight.

"Useless dwarrow," she murmurs fondly. At her side, Therin has not budged. Apparently they will all sleep in a pile tonight, like a pack of wolves. Tauriel pats Therin's shoulder and hopes that his dreams are nicer now. Perhaps Kili is right, she thinks, that she coddles him a bit too much. But Therin is only eleven years old, her last baby, and she can still treat him as such.

She had never envisioned herself this way; soft, nurturing, maternal. In fact, the Tauriel of Thranduil’s guard would have scoffed at such things. Her life in the Mirkwood had been consumed with duty, until Kili had given her the final incentive she'd needed to choose courage instead. At the time, it had been many centuries since Tauriel had experienced family, so long that it had not occurred to her to want one of her own. And yet here she is now in a crowded bed, embracing her little son, listening to her dwarven husband snore the mountain down. In rooms across the hall, her three older children sleep safely nestled in the stone. It is different, and yet more than anything she could have wished for herself.

And never let it be said that Tauriel is not as fiercely protective as any dwarrowdam under the mountain. Motherhood may have softened her, but then again, she thinks it has also made her twice as sharp and diligent a fighter. Dwalin has been known to admit that he doesn’t know how the guard would manage without her. She preens a bit whenever she thinks about it.

Kili's mouth is beginning to gape as his slumber deepens; it will take a dragon to wake him now. Tauriel smiles as he makes a grunting sound and twitches one foot. It warms her to see him peaceful, for they have endured much to arrive at this place of domesticity and quiet moments. Though she does try not to dwell on all the loss and hurts of the past, Tauriel never forgets.

If Kili had been awake, he would find a way to coax her out of these somber thoughts. His preferred method of doing so is to remind her of the dwarflings that roam beneath the mountain, the little children that play in the newly restored Dale, and of course, their own outlandish brood. Since her husband is given completely to his dreams at the moment, she remembers his advice herself as she looks down at the precious bundle of blankets that is Therin. Her own children have had a time of carefree youth--as carefree as is possible for half-eleven royalty in Erebor, at least. They have never seen war, never lived a single day in fear of Orcs or spiders or dragon fire at their doorstep. This is what she fought for; if she ever has to, she will not hesitate to fight for it again.

Tauriel smiles and leans over to blow out the candle at their bedside. She will wake with a terribly sore neck tomorrow, likely sweating from the heat of two dwarves atop her. But she has already forgiven them as she shuts her eyes, propping a pillow between her head and the stone wall. Half-formed plans for the next day float through her mind. Perhaps she will take Nethelion and Eronel hunting tomorrow; she can already tell that she will need the activity to stretch stiff muscles, and her older boys need the practice. Rhuna might tag along as well, though Tauriel despairs of ever getting her daughter to look twice at a bow and arrow. Late afternoon will find her taking up arms again with her fellow guardsmen. Tomorrow, after all, might be a day intruders come to disturb the mountain’s peace.

In the darkness of her bedchamber, draped in her family's warmth, Tauriel silently dares them to try.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi and thanks for reading! I've been enjoying all the Kiliel fix-it yumminess around here so much that I thought I'd try my hand at it. I just can't get over these cuties :)


End file.
